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Hi Elizabeth!
Outer space objects, such as planets (My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas - except there's no more Pizzas - long story but the kids love it...) originate from dust particles that have electrostatic force and gravity causing them to continually grow larger until they find a black hole, of course. I have done this activity with kids and adults before and they love it. It's easy. Just get a sample of gutter gravel, clean it, drag a magnet through the dust, and look at it under the microscope. This URL explains the steps:
http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/09-The-Hunt-for-Micrometeorites.pdf
Once you do this, you can explain that the shapes of the constellations are due to physical forces on very large collections of objects which exert forces on themselves and each other, causing the shapes of the constellations. I'm sure there's an astrophysicist out there, Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons of Big Bang Theory), who could explain it more accurately but for second graders this is a good start towards engaging kids in astronomy.
I just made up a sample from the flat rubber roof of the church where my private school is located and ordered some digital field miroscopes so each kid could find micrometeorites, photograph them, and print nice pictures. Weve even cast the captured dust into epoxy resin and made necklaces which the kids proudlt wore.
It also gets the kids exposed to doing a lab and using a microscope.
Best of luck! This is fun stuff!
jj
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